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Stan Lebar at the Early Television Museum

by: David Sica

Publication date: 2009

Usage: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

Topics: Apollo 11, Early Television Museum, Stan Lebar

Publisher: Early Television Foundation

Language: U.S. English

Item Size: 5.8G

The iconic images of man's first steps onto the moon were taken with a camera unlike any that had ever existed before. It had to meet previously unimaginable environmental, weight and bandwith challenges. And it had to be built using nineteen-sixties analog technology!

The Apollo 11 moon camera was the result of the dedication of a group of Westinghouse engineers. Stanley Lebar led that group.

In 2009, during the course of a tour of the Early Television Museum, Mr. Lebar offered some unique behind-the-scenes perspectives of that great achievement.

Stan and his wife were offered a personal tour of the Museum. At the end of the tour, Stan offered some personal reminiscences about the moon cameras. We're grateful for this "behind the scenes" look from one of the folks who brought us the single most memorable television broadcast of all time.

Credits

Special thanks to Matt Patoray for some of the footage used in this presentation.

Segments

TOUR OF THE EARLY TELEVISION MUSEUM

0:01:10 Mechanical sets
0:10:11 Prewar British
0:12:59 Prewar U.S.
0:18:51 World War II Military
0:24:48 Early Postwar
0:31:50 CBS Field Sequential Color
0:36:34 NTSC color
0:40:07 Cathode Ray Tubes
0:42:31 Color Wheel Converters
0:44:18 Field Sequential Color using modern technology
0:52:41 Two-color Camera
1:01:21 1948 Mobile Production Truck

DISCUSSION OF MOON VIDEO

1:03:33 Choice of interchangeable lenses vs. zoom lenses on Apollo 11 camera
1:05:01 Remote control of moon camera from earth
1:05:57 Cameras left on the moon
1:07:30 Environmental factors affecting design of camera
(At 1:07:37 there is a charming story about how the Westinghouse
engineers had access to the Internet in 1965 but only for a half hour
a day, starting at 3:30 in the morning!)
1:08:40 Stan's thoughts on watching the moon landing
1:09:53 Use of video for remote troubleshooting
1:13:17 How the loss of the Apollo 12 camera proved to be the turning point in
changing the perception of video from "non-mission critical" to
"necessary."
1:22:47 Why the camera included a slow scan/high resolution mode.
1:24:05 The color wheel to permit the black-and-white camera to take color
photographs that was designed but never used.
1:25:40 It was all done with analog - not digital - technology. "We were in an
analog world."
1:30:11 Why Westinghouse?
1:32:57 The million dollar camera ended up as just another piece of
"space junk."
1:33:45 Thoughts about the missing original moon tapes and the restoration of
the existing NTSC two-inch quad copies.
1:39:45 The anniversary of the moon landing is an annual national event
in Australia.
1:46:08 Concern that many people did not understand all the technical details
of going to the moon.
(And another charming story, this one about two ladies caught in the
rain in Houston, Texas on the night of the moon landing who didn't
believe the astronauts would go outside in weather like this!)
1:47:50 Thoughts on the "conspiracy theorists."